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No Reservations

And no photos this time. At least not for the moment. And today’s dish is not particularly photogenic anyway.

But I thought I’d blog about the dish that has been a staple in the past few months more times that I’d care to count.

I’ve told you about my teeny-tiny kitchen before. My fridge is teeny-tiny too which means I cannot store a lot of ingredients there, not as many as I’d like to, that’s for sure. So whenever I come across a recipe with less than 5 ingredients, I jump with joy.

Browsing Nigella’s new book I discovered the spaghetti with marmite which she in turn discovered via Anna del Conte and enjoyed them so much that she was somewhat crossed about not having discovered the recipe before. That intrigued me. But the fact that it included marmite as its main ingredient wasn’t very encouraging. After all, in Argentina we only use it for bread. Not to mention the “love it or hate it” ad here in the UK not so long ago.

To say I approached this recipe with apprehension would be the understatement of the year. Still, I trust Nigella for all of the recipes I’ve tried have turned out really tasty. I even forgive her the unnecessary lengthy process for her Clementine cake. So, I closed my eyes, grabbed the smallest marmite jar off the supermarket shelf and headed for the counter, making a mental note of remembering each and every one of her family members if I didn’t like it.

I shouldn’t have worried though. It was so tasty that I promptly adopted it and have been making it over and over again, mostly when I feel like a quick supper and have almost nothing else in the fridge but half a packet of butter.

It is almost embarrassing to say I’ve simplified such a short and easy recipe even more, but I have. Which means I have to do less washing up!

Cook the spaghetti in plenty of boiling, salted water, according to the packet instructions.

When the pasta is almost cooked, grab the bowl where you are going to serve the pasta (I am normally quite hungry so that tends to be a deep bowl), and add a couple of tablespoons of the pasta cooking water to it.

Add the Marmite and the butter and mix thoroughly to dissolve.

Reserve half a cup of the pasta water; then drain the pasta and pour it in the bowl to mix with the sauce, adding a little of the reserved pasta water to amalgamate if required.